Welcome to my first guide on Mobafire. An in-depth guide to Renekton: The Butcher of the Sands.

Having loved Renekton from the moment I first played him I have read many guides on here for the brilliant champion. However, I have never found one that was quite right for me. That is not to say that the other guides are bad or wrong, just not brilliant in my eyes.

So with out further ado let me tell you how I play this champion.

Pros
- Great Farmer
- High Damage early game resulting in lane control
- Tanky, able to withstand a lot of punishment in lane due to his defensive stats and heal
- Great fun to play
- Deceptively durable
- Can solo lane if you have a jungler
- Can jump over small walls

Cons
- Lacks any hard cc
- If pushed out of lane early can struggle to make up the deficit
- Susceptible to hard cc

Exhaust is a wonderful spell for Renekton as he lacks a cc with a long duration. This also enables you to kill those pesky champions that managed to get just out of your reach using their built in slows or abilities that help them get away from you, such as Caitlyn's 90 Caliber Net or Blitzcrank's Power Fist. Also with improved exhaust it lowers their armour and magic resist making them easier prey.




Flash, in my opinion, is better than Ghost. Flash can get you out of situations where you literally are backed into a corner. Jumping over walls is a brilliant escape and pursuit ability.

Ignite is a very good Summoner spell to have, just remember to remove the mastery point in improved exhaust if you do get this.

Ghost enables you to chase targets easier or just reach places quicker. It's personal preference if you want Ghost over Flash. I just prefer Flash.

Teleport is a very useful spell to have if in a solo lane. Otherwise it's nothing special.

Greater Mark of Desolationx9:
Amour Penetration Marks are superb on Renekton. Purely because all three of his main abilities deal physical damage.


Greater Quintessence of Desolationx3:
Same as above.


x9:
Flat Armour. Very strong defensive runes are a necessity on a tanky dps or full tank. Can be substituted for armour per level seals.


x9:
Magic Resist per level. Again the defensive runes are important. Can be substituted for flat magic resist glyphs.

The only different runes that work on Renekton would be different Quintessences. Such as Health Runes or AD runes for increased early game sustainability or damage.

So why 1-21-8?



Well the one in offense is for improved exhaust, simple. If you don't run exhaust then you will obviously need to put this point somewhere else.



21 defence. This is a VERY strong tree for Renekton. This will, along with the defensive runes, be able to take a substantial amount of damage before you have to retreat from battle or in some cases, die. (This guide isn't going to make you invincible, Renekton isn't that good.) Also due to Renekton's high damage and relatively short cooldown abilities you can also dish out lots and lots of damage whilst taking damage using this tree.



8 in Utility. This is for the experience boost. If you can give yourself a level advantage over your opponents then you have an even better chance of killing them, or at least make them return to base and miss out on experience. Also the time spent dead reduction is very useful as you are alive longer, obviously. Now many of you will wonder why I don't use the health and mana regeneration points. I'll tell you. The gain from them is small. 4% means for every 25 per 5 seconds health regen, obviously not mana as Renekton doesn't use mana, you gain one extra point of health per 5 seconds. That's not a lot. I find it more effective to respawn earlier after I die so I can defend or push quicker. Just my personal preference. you can if you want, put the 3 in the regeneration masteries, it is up to you.

Get Cull the Meek at level one. Renekton's level one fighting is not brilliant. Even if you did choose Ruthless Predator at level one you wouldn't make a huge impact in level one fights. So get Cull the Meek for the ability to farm and regain health.

Ruthless Predator at level two means you have some heavy single target damage as well as your only cc, a short duration stun. This can be used to grab kills early or stop enemies in their tracks when they are chasing or being chased by your allies. Because think about it. 0.75 seconds of your opponent unable to do anything to keep chasing a weakened ally who is close to your tower. That may be all the time needed for your ally to get to the safety of a tower and return home alive. You'd be surprised how often that actually happens.

Grabbing Slice and Dice at level three gives you the ability to do some great harass in lane. Slice through the enemy minion wave then Cull the Meek and Dice back out. If you feel like you have time you can use Ruthless Predator on an enemy champion as well before you Dice back.


Get Cull the Meek to rank 5 as fast as you can. This is your main farming ability. The healing portion, although small, is also extremely useful. Also using this on minion waves greatly increases your Fury generation enabling you to use furious Ruthless Predator and Slice and Dice more often for increased damage.



Get Ruthless Predator to rank 5 second. The damage output of this ability is huge. This skill makes Renekton a very strong duellist. It also enables you to briefly shut down your unfortunate target in team fights and ganks.



This is the last skill to reach rank 5. It is an extremely useful skill to have though. The ability to reach the enemy carries behind their tank is a huge ability to have in a team fight. Slice through the enemy tank, who should be at the front of the enemy team, and Dice towards your target. They won't know what hit them. All they'll know is that a giant angry killer crocodile has jumped on them and is killing them. This is where being tanky comes in useful. Also you can jump over small walls if you need to, either because flash is on cooldown or you don't want to waste it.


Max your ultimate whenever possible. It is a strong ultimate. You suddenly become even more scarier and make yourself a target in team fights. This is what you want, if you're taking damage, which should be small due to you being a tank or tanky dps, and your carries aren't then you have an advantage in team fights. Also the Fury generation bonus from this is extremely powerful, enabling you to use furious abilities more frequently greatly increasing your damage. Also don't underestimate the small amount of damage done to nearby enemies while this skill is active, you would be surprised how many kills you get from low health enemies who think you can't hurt them when you're stunned with your ultimate active. Especially Tryndameres, they ulti, hit 1HP and stick around thinking they can kill you, then their ulti wears off and they die due to this skills damage.

Using Cull the Meek is the best way to farm with Renekton. Get in between the enemy melee and ranged minions and hit Q, that should be 25 Fury gained and, if you waited for them to get to low enough health, some dead minions. If you didn't then last hit them, easy. If you're a little low on health then use this skill in the same position but when you have 50 Fury. This will require you to have used this skill recently and not left combat. This is also a very useful skill for securing kills. when enemies think they have escaped or are just on low enough health in a fight use this and their health will vanish. This does require good timing and knowing how much damage it does.




Using Ruthless Predator is the easiest out of all of them. A short stun with two auto attacks with bonus damage built in is a simple ability, just hit W and right click on who you want to hurt. Furious, this ability stuns for longer (1.5 seconds) and hits 3 times with even more bonus damage with each strike. This is devastating to most non-tank champions. Please remember that when you have less than 50 Fury this ability grants you 10 Fury and also resets your auto attack timer, much like Nasus' Siphoning Strike.




This skill is a little bit trickier to get right. It can be used offensively and defensively in many ways. Reaching an enemy is very easy if there are minions or other champions in the way because of the chance to cast it again when you hit an enemy with it the first time. Using it defensively can get you out of ganks or just get you away from enemies when you are't capable of surviving the fight. Slice on an enemy and Dice towards safety. Also it can get you across walls which will often give you a big head start on enemies chasing you. In urn it can be used to get over small walls that enemies have gotten over to escape from you. Do not forget that this ability does not generate Fury and that only Dice costs 50 Fury if you have that or more Fury. Furious Dice gains bonus damage and also lowers the armour of enemies hit. This is extremely useful. When you Slice and Dice to reach the enemy carry in a team fight if you can lower the armour of everyone that you went through that makes it much easier for your carry to get kills.




Dominus is a very strong ability in fights. Usually you don't want to use it in a 1v1 scenario but if you don't think you'll survive otherwise you might have to. when there is tow or more enemies and you are either want to or have to engage then you want to activate this just before you engage. Fury generation, damage to nearby enemies, bonus health and increased size which increases the range of your abilities and auto attacks is a nice set of buffs for Renekton granting you the power to wreck havoc in fights. This skill can be used to escape ganks if you think that you may be killed.


Team fights:
>>> >>> >>> >>>


This is what you need to do to reach the squishy enemies at the back of team fights. That way you're in the thick of the fight hurting their carries and drawing attention away from your own.

Starting off

Starting with a Long Sword and one health pot is a good early damage start that doesn't cause you to lose out on survivability. The Long Sword also contributes to healing through Cull the Meek.

First time back

Sight Ward

Due to your health replenishment and constant harass damage you should be able to stay and farm for a long time. Getting these items next is important. If you cant afford all of them at once skip the second Long Sword because wards are more important.

Second round

These items are essential to a strong Renekton, Armour Penetration and Cooldown Reduction greatly increase your damage output. The Null-Magic Mantle is to built into a Spirit Visage for Health, CDR, and increased healing and regeneration effects, meaning your heal from Cull the Meek as well as the health regen from FoN.

Next items

and OR

Finishing the Spirit Visage is needed. The next items you are building are your core tank items, Sunfire Cape and Force of Nature. The order in which you get these is dependant on the damage you are taking from the enemy team. If the majority of it is physical then build Sunfire Cape first. If it is mostly magic damage then build Force of Nature first.

And finally

Youmuus Ghostblade and
OR OR OR

Finish the Ghostblade, don't forget the active component. Your very last item is situational.

If you are tanky enough and want to kill more enemies then get Last Whisper, increased damage and more Armour Penetration, perfect.

If the enemy team is dealing a roughly equal amount of physical and magical damage then build a Warmog's Armour for that massive health and health regen boost, making you even harder to kill.

Against lots of Physical damage? Build Randuin's Omen and don't forget it's active ability, it's very useful in team fights.

Or if casters are still a problem then build a Banshee's Veil, yes I know Renekton doesn't use mana but it's still a strong item nevertheless.

And don't forget

Get these when you've finished building all of your items for that little boost.

Other Starting items

Either of these two items are good starting items on Renekton. The Doran's Shield gives you increased sustainability in lane. The boots along with 3 health pots give you early game mobility with some sustainability.

Other Boots

Mercury's Treads are very strong boots with the MR and Tenacity. Get these if you're up against a heavy CC team. Beserker's Greaves enable you to build up Fury quicker with the AS boost, but i feel that CD boots give you a higher damage output.

Other Tanky Items

All of these items are strong items for Renekton and you could substitute them into the build depending on the enemy team you are facing. But the items in the main build are what i believe to be the strongest set for Renekton.

This match history shows mostly success using this build on Renekton. As I said earlier this build doesn't make you invincible. It also doesn't give you instant wins when you play, you sill require a strong team with good teamwork.

16/08/2011: Added "Other Summoner Spells", "Other Runes" and "Other Useful Items" Sections.

All in all Renekton is a very strong champion, this build enables you to hurt the enemy, get kills and survive in the process. And yes this build works on both Twisted Treeline and Summoner's Rift. He destroys everyone on both maps.

Well that's my guide I hope you like it and start, or continue, to play Renekton and have success with this build. I'd appreciate and constructive comments below because if you think you can tell something better I can do better WITHOUT flaming I'd be happy to test it out. Thank you and go crazy with The Butcher of the Sands.

Hadesash